Swedish study: Narcolepsy surge may not have been caused by swine flu vaccine

THL hopes to complete preliminary research into links by year's end

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Sweden’s Medical Products Agency reports that cases of narcolepsy in the country have increased as much among those who received the Pandemrix vaccine against swine flu last winter, as among those who have not.
      During the epidemic, six children were diagnosed with narcolepsy in the province of Stockholm. Four of them had been given the jab against H1N1 or swine flu virus and two had not.
      In the region, 65 per cent of children under 18 had been given the Pandemrix vaccine. No children had been diagnosed with narcolepsy in the area from 2005 to 2009.
     
Ten cases of narcolepsy had been diagnosed in the Stockholm area among residents over the age of 18 during the swine flu epidemic. Five of them had been vaccinated and five of them had not.
      Half of adults in Stockholm Province, which has a population of about two million, had been vaccinated against the swine flu.
      The cases were reported in the first seven months of this year.
     
“Although the numbers are small, I consider them the most reliable results of research in the matter”, says Jukka Jokinen, a statistical researcher at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
      No regional studies have been conducted in Finland on the possible links between the vaccine and narcolepsy. Officials here have decided to study the matter on a nationwide scale.
      Jokinen says that the first preliminary results are expected this autumn.
      “Currently vaccination information of all Finns is being gathered at public health clinics. In addition, we need to make sure that the narcolepsy diagnoses are comparable."
     
By the beginning of September, a total of 19 cases of narcolepsy in children had been reported to THL.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  National Institute for Health and Welfare: Research funding does not influence choice of vaccine (30.8.2010)
  Ministry official defends decision to order swine flu vaccine (26.8.2010)
  H1N1 vaccinations suspended over narcolepsy scare (25.8.2010)

See also:
  Ministry investigates whether suspicions over swine flu vaccine side-effects were withheld (27.8.2010)

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